It's C-c-c-c-cold Outside!!

 Two big events since I posted a week ago. First was the bread baking class at church on Wednesday evening. 

Our friend Curt is the teacher.  He spent a week at the King Arthur Baking Company campus in Vermont a few years ago and has become a master baker and teacher! He has his own kitchen in the basement of their home.  Here are a bunch of pictures from that evening. 

We had so much fun!!!  He had dough ready to bake so could have some to eat that evening.  So we were able to take home the dough that we made.  

On Thursday morning I baked my bread.  Oh my goodness!!!  My house smelled AMAZING!!

We had light snow that day.  Choir practice in the evening. 

On Friday I got caught up on a lot of things here at home.  I got a phone call from Destiny.  She was ELATED that she had passed her State Boards that morning!  It was also her last day of school. 

She is now a licensed aesthetician!  Her graduation is a week from tomorrow.  Dick and I will be going to Indianapolis from Tuesday to Thursday next week for her grad.  I have been checking the weather for both here and there, and it looks really good.  Sun all three days!  And up to 45 on the day of her grad.  Compared to the 0 degrees we both are experiencing right now.  Hallelujah!!!

On Friday evening we went to Anthony and Lori's for Austin's 16th birthday cake. We had a lot of fun.

He got an 11x11 Rubik's Cube from Anthony and Lori. 

Before long it looked like this!

Dick and I gave him cash.  He read our card aloud.  It was so sweet.

Cutting his cake!

Sixteen years ago he was this sweet baby that wooed my heart to State College at a difficult time in our lives (unemployment for Dick.)  Some of you remember that.  Dick was offered a job here and I left my beloved music teaching job at Manheim Christian to become Austin's nanny

Here we are sixteen years later!

On Saturday Anthony and Lori and the boys went to Philly to celebrate Austin's birthday.  Austin got to play a 130-year-old Steinway piano!!  

And THEN they went to a place called iFly, and he did this!  This is a screen shot from a video, which is much more fun to watch!

Dick and I went to a memorial service at church for our dear friend Cheryl Houser.  

What a WONDERFUL service!!  We have only known Cheryl for maybe six years, and we appreciated her in the choir and when she filled in preaching from time to time.  But there was SO MUCH MORE to know of her as family members shared.  She was a truly amazing woman.

This is her sister Diana telling so many interesting things about Cheryl's life. 

There was a delicious meal served afterward.

On Sunday our church service was cancelled due to snow.  I took this picture in the morning.  

We actually only got a few inches even though it snowed most of the day.  Pastor Jim and his wife live on a mountain about 45 minutes away where they had more snow than here, and they would not have been able to make it. 

I spent some of the day working ahead on music plans for the coming weeks. 

Monday morning was really cold, but at least it was sunny.

My sunny kitchen as I cooked did not give a hint how cold it was outside. 

Later in the day when I came out of the grocery store after 5 pm I was almost giddy that it was still so daylight!!  It was 6 degrees at that point. 

This morning we had negative 2, and tomorrow morning we'll have negative 5.  So many people in the south are getting snow!  My sister Rose in Charleston, SC is getting snow and ice right now, hoping they don't lose power tonight.  My sister Mary Ellen has friends in Mobile, AL where she had lived for many years. They have 7 inches of snow, the most since the 1880's!  

This past weekend Sophie had an indoor track meet in Lubbock, Texas.  Lisa was there to watch.  Early Sunday morning when Lisa needed to drive to the airport she had to drive on icy roads - first time since she moved south in 1998!!  

I gotta go to bed.  I hope everyone's staying warm and safe!